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Six years later, the Snoopy’s hot dog stand fans were married in front of 150 guests at Raleigh’s Sacred Heart Cathedral. The August 9, 2008, ceremony took the bride’s breath away.

Jen Cone, a Virginia Tech grad, moved to Raleigh in 2001 to begin a career in pharmaceutical engineering. Michigan State grad Matt Wilgus moved to Raleigh from Michigan about the same time for much the same reason, to pursue a career in information security consulting, although the warmer weather was also a draw.

Mutual friends had organized a “date party” for a big group of singles, and both of them attended – at the Monster Jam, a monster truck rally at the RBC Center.

“It’s not an event I ever thought I would attend,” Jen recalls, with a laugh, “but that’s where we met and hit it off.”

They’ve been back to Monster Jam; it’s kind of sentimental now, and the rally usually rolls into town around Matt’s birthday, so Jen has even surprised him with a birthday party there.

But Jen credits Snoopy’s on Whittaker Mill in Raleigh and its krinkle fries for sealing her fate. The late-night call. The lure of the fries. The nice guy at the table. They discovered they had lots in common: running, laughing, having a good time and a deep love of travel.

They courted for five years, enjoying annual vacations and special times together, and on a romantic trip traveling from castle to castle along the coast of Portugal, Matt asked Jen to be his wife.

“I was completely surprised. Although we had been dating a long time, we hadn’t talked about (getting married). We didn’t tell anyone we were engaged until we got back to the States, three days later,” Jen recalls.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful, she says, everything she could have imagined.

“I was standing with my dad in the church, before they opened the doors for us to go down the aisle. I’m not a teary person. The doors opened. I just remember seeing all of the people. The church looked so beautiful, and Matt was standing down at the end. … I teared up,” she says.

Selecting a color scheme for the wedding and reception wasn’t difficult … both bride and groom cite green as their favorite color. They complemented it with chocolate.

The bride wore a chic, form-fitting gown with a floral design, and carried a simple bouquet of elegant yellow roses.

The five bridesmaids wore charming green dresses with silk accents at waist, hem and shoulders, a “lucky find” from a shopping trip to Macy’s, according to the bride.

The reception at Marbles, the children’s museum in downtown Raleigh, was perfect, Jen says, for her family and friends. A pre-reception cocktail party found children and adult guests alike playing with the exhibits upstairs, moments the bride and groom got to see in photos from friends after the fact.

“We knew we wanted to have our wedding reception in some kind of museum. We lived very close to Marbles, and it was the perfect fit, “ Jen says.

Chocolate brown tablecloths were dressed up with very simple floral arrangements of green flowers, created by Catering Works in Raleigh.

The cake – four tiers with an amazing green floral motif from Cinda’s Creative Cakes in Holly Springs – was a special highlight for the bride and, perhaps, an even bigger one for the groom. “When Matt met Cinda, he found out she was a Michigan State grad, so he was ready to go with her. I don’t think he even cared if he tried any of the cakes,” Jen laughs. “But it was a beautiful and delicious cake.”

If Jen could offer one piece of advice to brides it would be this: Use local vendors. For instance, she found her photographer, Stacy Borelli, in Carolina Bride magazine. She loved her photos of another wedding so much, she contracted Stacy for her special day and is delighted with the range of emotion in the pictures she has.

“All of our vendors delivered an incredible event,” Jen adds. “There are so many great vendors in the area, I would recommend getting married in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. They made it a very special day for us. For every little thing that we thought of, our vendors had an answer.”

Now, almost a year later, the happy couple still makes the occasional trip to their favorite romantic haunt, Snoopy’s, for the krinkle fries and some laughs. Just like old times.